Every now and then, someone points out something embarrassing in KDE that just needs to be fixed, and fixed quickly. So, less than 24 hours after Nat Friedman's interview on OSNews, the main valid issue he pointed out -- that KDE's clock configuration dialog was messy and bloated -- was already being fixed. There's even a bug in our database filed for it, and if it made enough of an impression on a fairly well-known GNOME hacker that he had to comment on it publically, I figured it deserved fixing. So moments after the comment, we began hammering out the UI for a newly revamped Clock Configuration page. Expect to enjoy the fix in CVS soon!
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I personally think that the key in the future will not be an index increasing in size more and more but an improved search facility (currently it already suggest the books but showing the exact pages the hit occured would be better). Of course this shouldn't remove the index, instead someone needs to create a definitive guideline for it which book should be put into what category. Definitive means there should be no more remaining and possible future questions about that issue.
The naming issue is valid, I'd hope a guideline (as soon as it exists) will be able to resolve it.
As long as we are discussing improvements here on the dot , here goes :)
I am using KDE 3.1.0, so if any of this has changed since, I apologise.
Please make it possible to configure the date format from the same dialog.
The mockups that have been presented here are great improvements except that the date format is still unchangeable. I prefer using Kicker in the 'small' size, which puts the time and date next to each other. The only format for the date is
dd/mm/yyyy, which takes up too much space on kicker.
Can there please be a few more options for the date format, such as
7th - day only
7th June - day and month
7 Jun - Shorter day and month format
7/6 - d/m format
07/06 - dd/mm format
7/6/03 - d/m/y format
07/06/03 - dd/mm/yy format and finally
07/06/2003 - dd/mm/yyyy format for all the people that use Kicker in 'normal' size.
If I chose the other option, 'Date and Time Format...' I am faced with the Date and Time KControl module which has nothing to do with the clock on Kicker. If I change the date formats in that Kcontrol module, nothing happens to the date format in the clock.
That leads me to ask, why have that option at all? Surely, if you want to change your locale you would do so from KControl and not from the Kicker clock?
Thank you.
dev.null
Maybe a look at Redhat's clock configuration dialog is in order too. It may no be best and does not offer as many options as KDE will probably want, but it is good UI and damn easy to use. They have split things like time changing to the UI. users can customize the UI, although quite limited, but more than adequate for me. To configure the time and time zones, you will need a password. That seems to make sense with me too.
Date and time format is centralized in KDE. As it should be. Did you read the warning when you changed the date format? It states that the change will only affect new applications. So if you restart kicker the clock-applet should have the new format. However this is also true for all application you start afterwards. So you might want to turn of the date from the clock-applet, or use normal size kicker.
And it is configurable (from help):
Date format codes:
YYYY - The year, using 4 digits.
YY - The year, using 2 digits.
MM - The month, using 2 digits (01 to 12).
mM - The month, using 1 or 2 digits (1 to 12).
MONTH - The name of the month.
SHORTMONTH - The abbreviated name of the month.
DD - The day, using 2 digits (01 to 31).
dD - The day, using 1 or 2 digits (1 to 31).
WEEKDAY - The name of the weekday.
SHORTWEEKDAY - The abbreviated name of the weekday.